It takes ten years for the 'Ugly Betty' actress to graduate from the University of Southern California because she left to pursue acting career.
- May 15, 2013
AceShowbiz - America Ferrera finally gets a bachelor degree. According to Us Weekly, she is graduating from the USC and will receive her international relations diploma on May 17. "I'm walking in my college graduation in 3 days from @uscdornsife! It's finally happening! Took me 10 years, but it feels great," she tweeted on Tuesday, May 14.
USC Dornsife, or Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, wrote back to congratulate the 29-year-old actress. "Congratulations! You've worked hard to get to this moment. Enjoy it! #fighton #TrojanFamily #uscgrad," read the tweet on the Dornsife official account.
According to Dornsife's site, Ferrera enrolled in the college in 2002. However, she decided to take a leave to pursue career as an actress when she was offered a role in "Ugly Betty", which gave her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy. Ferrera hesitated to take absence because she wanted to go to school too. A professor later explained to her that she did not have to choose, because she could achieve both successful career and education.
"I always wanted to go to college and get my education, although I always wanted to be an actor. I never knew how those two things would work with each other, and this was revealed to me in my first year of college here," she said in 2012. After talking to the professor, she thought, "I realized that I didn't have to give up what I love. I could find a way to link it to other things that I cared about."
Ferrera uses her status as a celebrity to help make changes to the world. For example, she teamed up with Save the Children in 2010. It is a nongovernmental organization which helps underprivileged children in the U.S. and around the world. With the organization, she went to Mali to help raise funds to build school. She also partnered with a New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof to raise awareness about human trafficking in India.
